Windows 8 and the disappearance of the Start button

Windows 8 is designed to be accessible for finger and mouse users alike. But …

Though Microsoft may yet have some trick up its sleeve, there's a growing body of evidence from leaked screenshots that Windows 8's taskbar will omit one mainstay of the Windows user interface: the Start button. To get to the Start menu's replacement (the "Start screen") from the desktop, you can press the Windows key on your keyboard, hit the hardware Windows key if your tablet has one, swipe your touch-screen from the side, or, if you have a mouse, move it to the bottom-left corner or right-hand edge. What you won't be able to do is actually click or tap a permanently-visible Start button on the taskbar.

The rumor may or may not turn out to be true, but if it is, we shouldn't be surprised. That's because you've entered the Metro zone, where the rules of human interaction have changed—and it's a change that will be felt not just by tablet users, but by traditional desktop denizens, too. Microsoft will need to tread carefully.

The Metro factor

From the outset, Microsoft designed Metro to be different from the Windows of old. Metro applications, downloaded and purchased through the Windows store, will eschew the Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers we're used to in favor of a new text-heavy, low-chrome, windowless Metro style.

The Metro aesthetic is essentially chromeless. The trappings of the traditional window—borders, title bars, permanently visible scrollbars, toolbars—are gone or at least substantially scaled back. Instead, we get much more emphasis on the use of, for example, juxtaposition and layout to convey information. Metro doesn't do away with chrome entirely (it still has buttons, etc.), but the chrome is much reduced compared to desktop Windows.

With the new aesthetic comes a new attitude towards user interaction. Traditionally, Windows has only used a small repertoire of learned interactions: click, double click, right click, drag-select, drag-and-drop. Almost everything else is visually cued on-screen. With Metro, a whole bunch of extra learned interactions are necessary, and the number of visual cues is greatly reduced.

Windows 8's gesture vocabulary is for the most part simple, with swipes and taps being the essential operations. The most important uses for these actions are swipe from the left and right edges of the screen (to task switch and bring up the "charms," respectively), and from the top or bottom (to bring up toolbars). Applications can be closed by dragging them off the bottom of the screen. Then there are some smaller gestures, like nudging items on the Start screen to select them for editing. But many of these interactions won't be prompted; they must be learned.

The swipe gestures to switch between applications, bring up the charms, or close tasks—none of these have any on-screen prompting. Nor do elements of the touch vernacular like "pinch zoom" (depending on form factor, at least; pinch zoom is peculiar on a phone that's mostly held and used one-handed, much more obvious on a tablet that's held and used two-handed).

It's possible that Windows 8 will have some kind of a tutorial, as Windows 3.1 once did, but this is unlikely. Such tutorials are not exactly fashionable, and the competition doesn't have to teach users how to use the platform (in spite of some non-obvious commands, such as "double tap home button" and "long hold").

Explicit versus implicit

It seems almost laughable today, but Windows 3.1 included a tutorial to explain how to use the mouse. Windows 95 didn't have the mouse tutorial. By 1995, mice were common enough to take mousing skills for granted, but it did have to teach users all the same. To encourage users to click the Start button, a bouncing message, "Click here to begin," would slide along the taskbar if the user didn't do anything after starting the operating system. Even the "Start" name itself was a bid to lure users into clicking; early prototypes had an unlabeled button.

Windows 95's "Click here to begin."

The bouncing prompt didn't survive past Windows 95, and even the Start label was finally dropped in Windows Vista; the Windows logo on the left-hand side of the taskbar was enough of a cue that people knew to click it. Windows 7 has all manner of hidden, unprompted user interface elements. Some are new, such as the jump lists that appear when you right click a taskbar button, and others old and long-standing, such as the alt-tab application switcher.

The trend to strip away explicit visual cues and rely more heavily on a common set of learned interactions is not a new one, but Metro is more extreme in this regard than any prior Windows version (though not substantially more extreme than other tablet platforms). It's an industry-wide trend.

The upside to this is slicker, lighter user interfaces. On some level, it's silly to waste screen space on user interface gadgets that prompt us to do things we know how to do anyway. For desktop machines with big screens, perhaps an X in the top right corner of every window is a small price to pay. But on a tablet (or a smartphone) where the constraints are much tighter (and where accidental presses are much more likely), a gestural method of closing applications saves precious pixels.

Learned versus intuitive

For actions that we do day in, day out, these prompts and on-screen cues are more than just a waste of space. They're straight up pointless. I don't need an on-screen cue to know where to resize a window, for example, because I know the border is where I resize the window. Windows 7's fat window borders, showing me where to grab hold of them to resize, are wasting space and telling me nothing I don't already know. A Mac OS X 10.7-style non-existent border would work just as well.

These basic interactions are all learned. It might seem "unintuitive" that Mac OS X 10.7 lets you grab a window border that "isn't there," but in practice it doesn't matter: we learn the interface and move on.

The learned interface no longer needs to be cluttered with affordances: visual cues that there's some interactive, functional item on the screen. There is no need for borders to "grab hold of," or of raised, pseudo-3D buttons to "depress."

There are many who'd argue that we learn every interface (except, perhaps, the very first one we use), and for all the emphasis put on "intuitive" interfaces, the use of learned interactions is downright expected. An operating system released in 2012 that tried to teach people how to double click or use a mouse would be laughed at.

There's nothing wrong with learned UI as such. A learned interface no longer has to explain every aspect of its operation to users, and can be a lot more streamlined and efficient as a result. But affordances do provide a great degree of discoverability. Users know which bits of the interface to experiment with because they are familiar with the on-screen prompts that the interface provides.

And not every interface can be learned. Tasks that are rare and infrequent are poor candidates for learning. Perhaps the most extreme demonstration of this is the command line compared to a wizard interface. Wizards are designed to be unlearned interfaces; they should be used for processes that are only performed infrequently, and so have to explain terminology and guide unfamiliar users through the process. The command line provides no guidance or explanation, and it's only worth learning the esoterica of individual commands if you're going to use them regularly. But ultimately, once the learning hurdle has been overcome, the command line can be far more productive and flexible than the wizard interface.

Peter, didn't they explictly say that they're hiding the ribbon by default in Explorer now, based on feedback? I don't think that's a good example of increased chrome when it's an opt-in instead of an opt-out.

Windows 8 does not look that bad all. the problem is they wanted to declutter it but what they did was quite the opposite: Too many tiles at once. Casual users will get confused.

Meanwhile according to marketshare.hitslink.com Windows XP still commands 42% of the market. Ironically XP seems to be the simplest way to accomplish things: Internet Explorer, Outlook and Word. Three icons most casual users need.

Windows 8 does not look that at all. the problem is they wanted to declutter it but what they did was quite the opposite: Too many tiles at once. Casual users will get confused.

Meanwhile according to marketshare.hitslink.com Windows XP still commands 42% of the market. Ironically XP seems to be the simplest way to accomplish things: Internet Explorer, Outlook and Word. Three icons most casual users need.

I just don't see how that would work. Apple and Android have shown clearly that there is an affinity for home screens that are cluttered with lots of icons that don't even communicate information. I fail to see how a less cluttered tile-based interface that actively presents information you care about is somehow more confusing or worse than 4 pages of icons...

EDIT: Note I'm not saying iOS/Android is the right way to do it, just saying there is ample evidence that users cope with clutter quite well right now. Since Metro is arguably less cluttered, I see this as a wash at worst.

Microsoft is trying to unify the Desktop with the Tablet and Smartphone. The only problem is that a Desktop isn't a Tablet or Smartphone. The interface is dramatically different and should not be treated the same.

I upgraded from XP to Vista and enjoyed it. As a power user I was able to tweak it to what I needed and it ran extremely smoothly. I eagerly upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 and its been running extremely smooth.

The dramatic changes that I see going into windows 8 concern me greatly. The Ribbon is something I do not and cannot support. I went so far as to reinstall the old Paint and Wordpad into windows 7. Such a drastic change to the start menu is even further beyond what I desire. I have no intention of upgrading to Windows 8 based on this information.

Having the same basic architecture running between Mobile and Desktop is a very good idea. It makes programing far easier. But Microsoft needs to realize the Desktop UI is always going to be different from the Mobile UI.

In it, the start bar exists... but with highly modified functionality.

If you press it, it takes you back to the Metro interfaceIf you hover over it, and then move your mouse to the far bottom left corner, then a small menu appears for search, control panel, etc. To interface with the UI requires that you move your mouse in a way that is more like a touch interface; and seems counter-intuitive at first.

It is a change that dramatically changes the way that you interface with the UI. This may benefit tablets but will frustrate those of us (laptop/desktop users) who rely on the current Start bar/ aero snap / gadgets for our workspace. I still am not sure how to get in and control advanced settings for Network adapters, firewalls, etc. (With the VM I use almost all of my 4GB so my foray into the 8 OS has been minimal)

My impression is that they are trying to remove any of the items that would confuse standard users. Whether this is going to be successful depends upon how well the system automates connections to networks, drivers, and peripherals. IT users will probably ask for a more traditional view; or a backdoor UI for system administration. It will be interesting to see if they fork this at then end; and what giving end user support will be like.

I am also waiting for a later release to see how those of us who usually have 3 spreadsheets, outlook, a word document, and a browser open handle switching between tasks. I don't believe that they will change that much; as it would be too much too fast.

My 10-month-old son taught me the four-fingered swipe gesture on the iPad the other day, or at least, he did *something* that switched between running applications and I tried various things until I happened upon the four-fingered swipe. I'd probably have known about it if I bothered to read the "release notes" of whichever version of iOS that was introduced in, but I didn't, and who knows what other gestures are available that I still don't know about.

It's increasingly going to be an issue for us as developers to make features discoverable when there is no on-screen asset for, or visual representation of, a piece of functionality. And if it's difficult when there's a slab of glass waiting to respond to multitouch gestures, how about 10 years hence when the UI is projected directly onto your retina and controlled with eye movements, gestures in the air and murmured voice commands?

I personally think that Microsoft is going in the reverse direction for users on their operating system. I like a simple easy design where I don't have to search forever to find something and can do it quickly. The interface with windows 8 is perfect for those with touch displays... but for us people who actually do things with the mouse and keyboard, they have just made the style much more difficult to use. I plan on disabling that start menu and going with the classic style.

Personally, I've always thought the ribbon was a bad decision in UI design:

1. The standard drop-down menu system does everything in straight lines. So if you don't know where a menu command is, you can simply scan the bar until you see it. This is impossible on the ribbon, because there are multiple levels to the design... especially the buttons to get to the drop-down menus that are buried in the ribbon. (Yes, some drop-down menus are still there!)

2. The older, customizable combination of menus and toolbars allowed less often used commands to stay hidden away in the menus. This actually reduces screen clutter and keeps as much real estate as possible for the actual document editing area.

3. Darnit, it's just harder to tell someone where to find a command now! "Look for the sqiggely line with the thing under it that looks like a pig feeding a mushroom to a frog." Ugh. Can't I just say "Pull down Tools and select 'Mail Merge'?"

I am excited to try the Consumer Preview. I think they got rid of the start button on the desktop because it was too jarring. In the Developer Preview, almost by habit you would click Start, and then boom you get launched into the start screen.

Still, as a desktop user and fan, I am worried. Just need to get the new build and see how it works for me. I am sure we will adapt, and just like everything before us, we will wonder why we did it the old way for so long.

The only thing that really concerns me is the multitasking. I am someone who always has a lot of apps open at any one time. If I can only have two visible on my desktop, that is going to be pretty annoying. I have a large display just so that I can have multiple windows open all the time. Curious how that is going to change over time with Metro.

Why do geeks have this weird delusion that anybody cares what their personal preferences are or what software they plan to use or not use? Is this just something to post when you want to comment but have nothing substantive to say?

Microsoft is trying to unify the Desktop with the Tablet and Smartphone. The only problem is that a Desktop isn't a Tablet or Smartphone. The interface is dramatically different and should not be treated the same.

Quoted for epic truth. Shoehorning a UI designed for touch onto the desktop is going to result in a profoundly bad user experience, just as shoehorning the desktop UI onto portable devices did.

Personally, I've always thought the ribbon was a bad decision in UI design:

1. The standard drop-down menu system does everything in straight lines. So if you don't know where a menu command is, you can simply scan the bar until you see it. This is impossible on the ribbon, because there are multiple levels to the design... especially the buttons to get to the drop-down menus that are buried in the ribbon. (Yes, some drop-down menus are still there!)

2. The older, customizable combination of menus and toolbars allowed less often used commands to stay hidden away in the menus. This actually reduces screen clutter and keeps as much real estate as possible for the actual document editing area.

3. Darnit, it's just harder to tell someone where to find a command now! "Look for the sqiggely line with the thing under it that looks like a pig feeding a mushroom to a frog." Ugh. Can't I just say "Pull down Tools and select 'Mail Merge'?"

You may hate the ribbon, but tell that to the Office team, where 90% of the requested features already existed, people just can't find them.

"Data is showing that the redesign of Office really did reach this goal — Word 2007 and Excel 2007 users are now using four times as many features as they used in previous versions, and for PowerPoint, the increase in feature use is a factor of five."Obviously the have statistics and data to prove that the ribbon works

I much prefer the ribbon. Power users (like you, and me) need to remember that most people are not us. Most people need help. File menus are not helpful.

At least they are trying. I don't think anyone can honestly say that the best UI paradigm for interacting with a computer was created almost 20 years ago and there's no need to change it.

Remember how many people howled about changing the Windows XP start menu in Windows Vita. That thing was horrible, literally a maze where you lost your place if you moused off the menu. Sure, they refined it in Vista, but it's so horrible in general that start menu search is how I open apps and is far faster, and even possible to do with your eyes closed.

Microsoft is trying to unify the Desktop with the Tablet and Smartphone. The only problem is that a Desktop isn't a Tablet or Smartphone. The interface is dramatically different and should not be treated the same.

I have the same concern. I think they're trying to be revolutionary (à la Apple), but have chosen the wrong technology for the revolution.

Metro seems very nice on small touch interfaces, but I'm having a very hard time seeing it as anything other than a "downgrade" for desktop users.

Then again, I also hate the ribbon interface in Office and still find it makes me less productive than the old menu system did, so what do I know...

Why do geeks have this weird delusion that anybody cares what their personal preferences are or what software they plan to use or not use? Is this just something to post when you want to comment but have nothing substantive to say?

Change is necessary. Computing is becoming simpler. Microsoft either adapts, or Windows will die (at least as a consumer platform.)

What they are trying to do is simpify the day-to-day experience for everyone, and retain the richness of a desktop OS for those times it is needed. To do that they really have to ignore those for whom the ideal desktop UI is Winodws 2000.

Really, is getting used to a new Start paradigm really all that hard? Is a (hidden by default) ribbon in Explorer really that big of a deal?

Why do geeks have this weird delusion that anybody cares what their personal preferences are or what software they plan to use or not use? Is this just something to post when you want to comment but have nothing substantive to say?

At least they are trying. I don't think anyone can honestly say that the best UI paradigm for interacting with a computer was created almost 20 years ago and there's no need to change it.

Remember how many people howled about changing the Windows XP start menu in Windows Vita. That thing was horrible, literally a maze where you lost your place if you moused off the menu. Sure, they refined it in Vista, but it's so horrible in general that start menu search is how I open apps and is far faster, and even possible to do with your eyes closed.

People don't like change. That's what's going on here.

I have the sneaking suspicion that you will prove to be correct. I loved Vista/7s improvements to the XP UI... and many still scream. I loved the ribbon once I became acclimated.

Most of us will get used to the new UI within a month and go on about our business. I will say, however, that switching between desktop and Metro, with the current version, seems counterintuitive. I would have to litterally load all of my apps and try using it until I could give an honest review. Something that I just don't feel like doing until release.

"Though Microsoft may yet have some trick up its sleeve, there's a growing body of evidence from leaked screenshots that Windows 8's taskbar will omit one mainstay of the Windows user interface"

What is obvious at this point is that Windows 8 is not going to be one product. Windows for tablets (WOA) will almost certainly be the first version to appear in a real product. Maybe there is still some way that can be made to happen this year. It is very likely to look like the screen shot The next version of Windows phone will be another product based on Windows 8 technology. Probably it will not have exactly the same look or put much if any importance on supporting mouse users. The future of Windows 8 on the standard PC desktop is at best uncertain. No doubt there are many in Microsoft who would like it to be in the image of this screen shot. It would not be surprising if the leak was part of an agenda to push that view. But there will also be a large segment of Windows users who have zero interest in Windows 8 technology and see it as a negative change from a Windows 7 desktop that they have already organized to meet their needs. Microsoft will be making a big mistake if they don't leave those users the option to stick with the current design.

Personally, I've always thought the ribbon was a bad decision in UI design:3. Darnit, it's just harder to tell someone where to find a command now! "Look for the sqiggely line with the thing under it that looks like a pig feeding a mushroom to a frog." Ugh. Can't I just say "Pull down Tools and select 'Mail Merge'?"

I don't have a copy of Windows handy, but Office and most other apps on the Mac, have a really nice Search under the Help menu. So I typed in "mail merge" and it opened the appropriate menu and had a big pointer to "mail merge manager", as well as other things found. Although maybe Office on Windows doesn't have menus at all.The point being that on a Mac, there's this really useful feature that no one seems to use, and I expect the same is available in Office on Windows.

I'm all open for changes, but there are some things in Windows 8 from the Dev Prev that are just annoying when used with a traditional setup. Luckily I have a tablet pc, so I can test it in either way, and it is really a hassel. There is a lot of unnatural feelingness when using it with a mouse (everything is so big, enormouse amounts of travel as stated, ugly 5 year old looking blocks of color that replace toasts). I'm still iffy about upgrading even though I have a tablet pc. This might very well be MS's swan song.

To all of my fellow Metro-sceptics - don't worry guys,we're bound to see a hack early enough to disable that monstrosity and go back to the UI we prefer (my money is on it coming from Russia/CIF)... It's surprising that that MS aren't giving us the opt-in for that as I don't think it'll clutter up the install media nor the install itself,especially if it's done as a selectable 'Windows Feature' either during installation or after the first boot

3. Darnit, it's just harder to tell someone where to find a command now! "Look for the sqiggely line with the thing under it that looks like a pig feeding a mushroom to a frog." Ugh. Can't I just say "Pull down Tools and select 'Mail Merge'?"